Hughes as playwright / Darwin T. Turner -- Hughes and the Afro-American folk and cultural tradition / George E. Kent -- Not without laughter / Roger Rosenblatt -- Hughes : evolution of the poetic persona / Raymond Smith -- Jazz, jive, and jam / Onwuchekwa Jemie -- "No crystal stair" : unity, archetype, and symbol in Hughes's poems on women / R. Baxter Miller -- Langston Hughes / Martha Cobb -- Old John in Harlem : the urban folktales of Langston Hughes / Susan L. Blake -- Hughes : his times and his humanistic techniques / Richard K. Barksdale -- Affirmation of Black self / Chidi Ikonne -- Narrative technique in The ways of white folk / David Michael Nifong -- The origins of poetry in Langston Hughes / Arnold Rampersad.
